The present invention relates to tools for terminating conductors and more particularly to a portable tool for simultaneously terminating a plurality of conductors in a mass termination connector.
Mass termination connectors, which function to remove insulation from and electrically terminate a plurality of conductors in response to a single stroke of an insertion tool, are coming into increasing commercial prominence because of their great savings of tedious manual operations compared with the previous wiring method of stripping the insulation from individual conductors, placing a terminal on each conductor and crimping the respective terminals on the respective conductors. A mass termination connector, an example of which is fully disclosed in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,442, includes a housing having a front wall and a back wall joined by a plurality of spaced barrier walls defining an array of cavities for holding individual metallic terminal elements. Aligned openings in the front and back walls extend from the wire-receiving face of the housing to provide entrances to the various cavities so that conductors positioned over the cavities can be moved laterally of their axes to terminate them in the terminal elements.
Various types of tools have been proposed for inserting the conductors into the mass termination connectors. The simplest type is of the hand variety having an enlarged head, no moving parts and which can terminate only one wire at a time. A pneumatic gun-type tool has been suggested which holds and indexes the connector to terminate one wire at a time. Such tools are not well suited for use with conductors positioned on a wiring layout board because of their modest insertion rates or because the conductors must be lifted from the board and positioned in the tool.
A portable tool has also been suggested for use with wiring board mounting conductors, the tool functioning to sever the excess portions of the conductors extending from the connector as it terminates all the conductors simultaneously. This tool requires the use of a plurality of connector supports or jigs positioned at the desired ends of the completed wiring harness for holding the connectors and separate wiring jigs for positioning the various conductors in alignment with the cavities in the connector housings. Each connector support is required to carry its own fixed cutter blade for cooperation with a movable cutter blade on the tool to sever the excess portions of the conductors. Care must be excercised in mounting the tool to insure the movable and fixed cutter blades are precisely aligned. Reference may be made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,845,535 and 3,859,724.